Finally got around to getting my Dad's record player up & running well over a decade. I actually have some other Marantz components of my own choosing including a KI Pearl Lite amp & Van den Hul cables which I ripped out of my long dead Peugeot 504 with endless personal upgrades, including air shocks & onboard air compressor & a fridge back in 1981, room for 6 tinnies. An eye watering system in its day with KEF speakers with sub woofers, yes 2, multiple amps & the first car CD player in Australia.
I also did some repairs on my Wharfedale E50 speakers. It is hard to believe, but Wharfedales actually get better with age as they stiffen up, unlike modern speakers which disintegrate. If I can get my hands on some E90 speakers, I will swap with my Land Rover & throw in the wife... maybe not a good idea... second hand depreciation... the wife that is!
Anyway, back to the turntable. I bought a new stylus, nothing of quality in Australia, like everything else sold locally, just Chinese rubbish, so bought a new JICO Shure 91ED stylus for the SME 3009 series 2, from Japan.
Wow, what a nice sound. It reminds me or my mate's $30k setup in the early 1980s, & I thought I had an expensive system. A stylus back then $700, frightening stuff... stylus only!
I opened up a fully sealed LP as dust was an issue. So going to have to give the best clean I have ever done to our units. So probably will get a couple of HEPA 14 room filters. We already have an H14 in our vacuum. Anything less is a waste of time.
So at the end of the day a meditative process to just simply sit and listen to a LP... highly recommend... & the odd bit of dust crackle... yes... character!
I did clean the stylus with a sable tail Winston Newton series 7 brush size 2 $63 not a cheap process, but these brushes are worth their weight in gold!
Next project is to design a cover for the turntable to replace the original.
When CDs first came out they were considered indestructible. A friend of a friend completely replaced his record collection with CDs and then etched his name on the back of each one. Beautiful.
When I bought the CD player. The sales person was jumping up & down on a CD. I am not interested, here is the money I just want to pay for it & go. It was my lunch break & I really had to get back to work.
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
1st saw cd's at Melbourne Exhibition Building, yep jump on them , screw your dirty heel into them, wow then play, all good. But they soon dumbed down the quality, you cannot have a lifetime item sir!
I bought an elliptical stylus N91ED. Very happy with it so far. They have a life of 100 - 200 hours, so that works out to roughly a $1 per LP.
I think I have the tracking set up as best as possible. Getting the anti-skate force right was probably the most difficult bit. The tracking force I have set to 1 gram.
Bought it from JICO which is sent from Japan. I will see how this stylus goes & maybe next time order a SAS (super analogue stylus). They supposedly sound better, a longer life of 500 hours, but about the same LP amortised cost!
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
I once worked with a guy who was the biggest tight arse miserable bugger ever been put on the planet. Would steal the sandwich out of your mouth before you could bite down on it. Tight with money, you got no idea. I nearly dropped dead one day when he told us he he brought a new addition to his sound system. If I remember correctly it was a new set of speakers, and he parted with around $25,000. I told him if he could hear the difference between them and a $2000 pair he was kidding himself. He certainly didn't hear they salesman saying "I've got a real live one here boys". Still he never spent a cent on much else. Even when it was his shout.
Nothing like the sound quality of vinyl. Luckily I saved all of mine from the early 60's through till its demise. Vinyl has become trendy & very expensive in the past five or so years. I have around 300 albums.
Vinyl's in the cupboard, CDs are in there too, turntable is under the stairs, with the pre amp needed for my amp that I used, cd player was my DVD player, not used now for anything. Use an ipod filled with music. Mostly with ear phones or in the car. Good enough for me.
All wasted for me with the state my ears are in, though I am sometimes amazed at the range of sounds on the rare occasion when I put on a pair of earphones & listen to one of my crappy hand me down sound systems.
I never listen to music but have a collection of CDs & a few Vinyls plus a box of Tapes.
